Mulhouse to Le Markstein Fellering – Photos: A.S.O.
This mountainous stage put Tadej Pogacar even further ahead in the Yellow Jersey competition as he took a flyer up the final ascent up Col du Haag, passing all of the break riders ahead, and increasing his lead in the overall general classification to the finish by 44 seconds.
Coming up close behind him to the sprint at the finish in Le Markstein Fellering were Pogacar’s UAE teammate, Isaac del Toro, and Decathlon’s Paul Seixas, the youngest rider in this year’s tour. Vingegaard lost a position and is now fourth in the GC. Remco Evenepoel managed to come in fifth, now 48 seconds back from Pogacar.
1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates XRG)
2. Isaac del Toro (UAE Emirates XRG), +38”
3. Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), +38”
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), +44”
5. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), +48”
After a battle up the final mountain pass of four, Carapaz became the most combative rider of the day. He attacked at 9 kilometers from the final ascent up Col du Haag.
At 2.4 km from the top, Carapaz was leading ahead of the Yellow Jersey and was joined by Johannsen.
At 1500 to the Col de Haag, Pogacar attacked in what is now his signature, repeat move–to wait until the last few km of the race to attack. He easily passed Carapaz, who was now holding on the chase (GC) group with Vingegaard among them.
The riders faced a narrow strait crowded by fans violently screaming and waving flags–a chaotic scene that could derail any rider without sufficient concentration.
Vingegaard was on his heels 19 seconds, along with Paul Seixas. Evenepoel, Ayuso and Lipowitz were 50 seconds behind Pogacar. Soon Del Toro joined Vingegaard in the first chase group. They were within 5 km from the finish, mostly approached on a downhill.
| 1 | T. POGACAR | UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG | 04h 00′ 07” | – | B : 10” | – |
| 2 | I. DEL TORO | UAE TEAM EMIRATES XRG | 04h 00′ 45” | + 00h 00′ 38” | B : 6” | – |
| 3 | P. SEIXAS | DECATHLON CMA CGM TEAM | 04h 00′ 45” | + 00h 00′ 38” | B : 4” |
The first contact with the mountain range of the Vosges was focused on the ascent and descent of Ballon d’Alsace, en route to Belfort, where attackers prevailed on Friday. Stage 14 is a rollercoaster with four major climbs and an elevation gain of 3,800 meters packed in 155.3 km of racing between Mulhouse and Le Markstein Fellering.
Healy Shaped the First Break
Before the climbing festival, Alpecin-Premier Tech control the early part of the stage to ensure maximum points for Jasper Philipsen at the intermediate sprint (Wattwiller, km 12.6). Soon after the line, the peloton reached the bottom of the Grand Ballon (cat. 1, summit at km 36.6) and a fierce battle for the breakaway developed.
Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) attacked early on the ascent and was a driving force to make the break. Around 30 riders joined him at the front, including his teammates Richard Carapaz, Alex Baudin, and Georg Steinhauser. Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5) was back on the move the day after his breakaway to Belfort when he moved fourth place in the overall standings. Visma-Lease a Bike sent Matteo Jorgenson, Bruno Armirail and Victor Campenaerts up the road.
Frenchman Paret-Peintre takes the KOMs
Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) took the first summit of the day ahead of Richard Carapaz. The duo kept the pace going on the downhill. Soon they were joined at the front by Healy and the Johannessen twins, Tobias and Anders. Propelled by his teammate Pablo Castrillo, Einer Rubio made it a 6-man lead group on the second ascent of the day, Col du Page (cat. 2, km 71.3). Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos) was chasing with them but he lost his position due to a mechanical.
Paret-Peintre crested the summit first again. The gap to the bunch hit a maximum of 3’10’’ on the following descent. Meanwhile, Armirail and Campenaerts gave it their all to keep the chase group ahead of the peloton.
Onto the Ballon d’Alsace, Paret-Peintre took the lead of the mountain standings with a tally of 43 points, one more than Pogacar. Carapaz was now up to 38 points. At the summit, the chasers trailed by 1’50’’ and the peloton by 2 minutes. They came back together on the downhill.
Seixas right behind Pogacar and Del Toro
At the front, Healy lost energy to give Carapaz the best chances of battling for the stage win. Anders Johannessen does the same for his brother. But the gap was down to minute and a half at the bottom of the final climb, Col du Haag (cat. 1, km 149.4).
Johannessen and Carapaz rapidly distanced themselves from from their rivals while Decathlon CMA CGM upped the ante in the GC group. The Ecuadorian climber went solo with just under 9 kilometers remaining on the ascent. Johannessen got back up to him 3 kilometers from the summit. But behind them, Vingegaard accelerated and eventually closes the gap 2.5 km from the summit.
Less than a kilometer later, the gradient reached 16% and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates XRG) made his pedals fly up the mountain. Vingegaard tried to react. Seixas got back to him at the summit. And Del Toro closed the gap on the false flat leading to the finish. While Pogacar powered to his 25th stage win in the Tour, Del Toro took second ahead of Seixas, who gained 16 seconds on Ayuso. The French star (Seixas) now has the white jersey, his first distinction in the Tour.
